


The Family Doctor

by Ms_Ice



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Attempted Pregnacy, Dimension Cannon, Episode: s11e09 It Takes You Away, F/M, Pete's World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 09:23:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16951362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ms_Ice/pseuds/Ms_Ice
Summary: Before leaving the Anti-Zone, the thirteenth Doctor is pulled back to Pete's World by Rose Tyler and the Dimension Cannon. Rose Tyler has summoned the Doctor to save the Metacrisis Doctor, who is dying as his human half can no longer support his Gallifreyan half.





	The Family Doctor

As she rushed towards the exit of the Anti-Zone, her new friend on the chair behind her, the Doctor found herself in a state that seemed so common. Happiness and sadness merged into one weird ball of emotion. The Solitract was doomed to be alone forever, there was nothing she could do about that. All she had been able to do was offer her friendship. She was glad she’d been able to become friends with the Solitract at least, she liked having friends. And yet as she ran for the exit she realized something was wrong, something besides the collapsing Anti-Zone. 

That was when she felt it suddenly, another portal opening up from another dimension into the Anti-Zone in front of her. Despite knowing that the Anti-Zone was collapsing she had to stop before the suddenly visible portal, her curiosity demanded it. There was a brief familiar sound coming through the portal, something she recognized instantly even if it made no sense. It was the sound of a sonic screwdriver. Then a slight blur of a person reached through the portal and grabbed her hand. She could never forget the owner of that hand, no matter how much it seemed impossible.

Rose Tyler said one strained word with a smile, “Run!” then pulled the Doctor through the portal.

There was a jerking sensation followed by a feeling of brief flying and acceleration, but the hand that belonged to one of her old companions held on tight. Rose Tyler. Next thing the Doctor knew she was being flung out the other side of the portal, ungracefully crashing into a pile of pillows as her hand was released in midair. She sat up as quickly as she could recover though, the impossibility of what just happened worrying her greatly. And yet, there she was getting up next to her. The original version of the Bad Wolf.

The thought occurred to her that maybe she was still in the Anti-Zone and this was the Solitract’s doing, but it didn’t feel right. She was on Earth again, she could feel it just as she could feel the flow of time. She got up with some effort and was reminded of how different it felt being female. The room they were in seemed to be some sort of science lab, with a large cannon looking thing pointed at them and computer consoles everywhere. No one else was around but for Rose and her.

Meanwhile Rose had gotten up and was scanning the Doctor with a sonic screwdriver. A sonic screwdriver that the Doctor didn’t recognize and one that had a pink light.

“Two can play that game.” She whipped out her own orange glowing sonic, scanning Rose just as Rose scanned her. Together they scanned each other and both confirmed what they both needed to know.

“Rose Tyler.”

“Doctor? How… I mean… you’re… a woman?”

“Yep. New regeneration. Still getting used to it. How is this possible? No, wait. Dimension Cannon. Got that. I mean, how are you?”

“Wherever you just were I was able to break through. I need your help Doctor. He’s dying.”

“Whose dying? Wait. You mean I’m dying? I mean, he’s dying?”

“Yes. I need the TARDIS.”

“I don’t have it. It’s in the other dimension with my team.”

“Your team?”

The Doctor heard the bit of jealousy and surprise in Rose’s voice and she felt a twinge of regret. They were supposed to have traveled together forever. She nodded though.

“Yaz, Graham and Ryan. But what’s wrong with me? I mean… agh! Tell me he picked a proper name now?”

“John Tyler. And for some reason his body is losing energy. We think he’s been away from the TARDIS too long and he’s lost the link between it and him. He forced his body into a coma to save energy until I can do something about it.”

Hearing that her copy shared Rose’s last name gave her an even stronger mix of joy and sadness. They had married!

“Congrats! About the marriage that is. I bet it was a lovely wedding. But I’m sorry… If I return through that portal and back to my dimension I won’t be able to come back with the TARDIS.” 

Watching Rose start to lose hope and crack made her heart break. She held out her arms and Rose rushed into her embrace, sharing each others sadness.

After a long moment the Doctor pulled back and wiped away one of the tears rolling down Rose’s cheek.

“Now now, don’t give up hope yet. Let me see him.”

Rose nodded and led the way through a doorway and upstairs into what turned out to be a relatively normal, if spacious, house. There were pictures on the walls, bookcases everywhere, a sofa and holo TV. It felt… comfortable. Almost like something part of her would have liked in another life. It literally was she supposed. But something was nagging at her. Something wasn’t right.

“Rose. What year is it?”

Rose smiled as she led the way up a second set of stairs, a metal spiral staircase.

“2045. I know. I look pretty good for an old lady.”

“Very good. A bit tired, but still good. But how?”

“Bad Wolf. When the Doctor… err… when you… took the TARDIS’s energy out of me some of it lingered. It increased my lifespan. John ages about the same as me thanks to the Gallifreyan part of DNA. Actually he ages a little faster than I do, but we’ve learned to accept that.”

They stepped into a bedroom with a beautiful four post bed, complete with curtains that looked like royalty. In fact she was pretty sure they matched a bed she’d once been in… Although the man on the bed took that thought away from her. It was her. Well, him. John. For once she actually regretted that they hadn’t ever chosen individual names. It wasn’t every day that they met themselves though.

Rose moved and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out and caressing John’s face. The Doctor watched before taking out her sonic and scanning him with it. Rose was right. His vitals were weak but not from any physical ailment, and there was something missing. Something about the reading was wrong. She scanned herself with her sonic and compared the two. They were different of course, but they were different in a place that should have been the same. His Gallifreyan half was missing something and his human half wasn’t able to support it. He didn’t have enough energy to regenerate, but he should have had enough energy to keep both halves stable for a normal human lifespan. And yet it was failing.

“You’re right. The TARDIS could help him. I don’t know why but the energy that keeps his Gallifreyan half alive, the same energy that keeps me alive and has extended your own life, is nearly depleted. His human half is trying to help but it doesn’t have what the other half needs. The problem is that I can’t get the TARDIS here and I’m not sure we can get him to the TARDIS. The Anti-Zone was collapsing behind me. I’m not even sure I can get back home now.”

“I can put you right back where and when you were.” There was a note of pride in Rose’s voice that the Doctor didn’t miss. “John and I modified the Dimension Cannon to fire through time as well as through dimensions. That’s how I found you. Mind you we still can’t fire into your dimension without causing too much damage, but I can get you back to the Anti-Zone exactly after you left it.”

The Doctor couldn’t stop herself from smiling, “I should have known you had it in you. Alright then. So if we can’t use the TARDIS, we need another source of Gallifreyan energy. I can use my own energy to keep him stable a bit longer, but it won’t keep him around for long without killing me first.”

“What about the rest of my own energy?” Rose questioned, ready to give her own life in a heartbeat for John. The Doctor had always admired that about Rose, she had always been willing to do what was needed to save a life.

“Not nearly enough. You barely have any energy in you. Actually I'm surprised what little energy you have has let you live so long.” 

“I’ve already been giving him some of it. I could give him the rest though.” It was then that the Doctor focused on Rose and realized why she was looking so tired. So tired in fact that Rose was starting to fall over. Rose collapsed across John’s body and the Doctor’s heart nearly stopped with worry.

“No! I knew I was missing something!” 

She scanned Rose with the sonic screwdriver again. There was so little of the TARDIS’s energy left she had missed it originally, and Rose's normal energy was even lower than when she'd first arrived. As long as Rose and John were close enough, John’s body was taking the energy Rose had already been offering. But John needed more than Rose could provide. She stood up and rushed around to the other side of the bed, carefully trying to get Rose upright, “Come on Rose Tyler, wake up. You need to get away from him so we can find a better source of energy."

Struggling where she felt she once wouldn’t have had any trouble, she only managed to get Rose a few feet away from the bed before they both collapsed to the carpeted floor.

"When did you get so heavy!” she exclaimed. The landing woke Rose up a little at least and she spoke weakly.

“John?”

“No Rose, it’s me. The… Doctor.” She paused and added a note to herself, “I’ve got to pick a new name for today.” Getting one arm under each of Rose’s arms she started dragging Rose out of the bedroom. “Come on, we have to get you downstairs quickly.”

Rose managed to wake up enough that the Doctor was able to get her upto her feet and carefully down the stairs to the couch. They collapsed together on the couch, the Doctor breathing heavily with effort.

“This was never this difficult before.”

“I couldn’t just let him die…” Rose spoke weakly.

“I know. I know.”

They both laid there for awhile, Rose resting and recovering and the Doctor gathering her thoughts. She hated to stay still, but she needed to find a solution. There was no way she could let Rose die. She’d give up the TARDIS if she had to, but she couldn’t let Rose die.

“If only we had a little piece of the TARDIS,” whispered Rose in her half-conscious state.

Then it struck the Doctor and she bolted upright, “That’s it! Rose Tyler you’re still a genius! You hang in there. I’ll be back before you know it.”

The Doctor got up and rushed out of the house, only to turn back around and run back into the house.

“Rose… where’s your cell phone?”

“Built into my wrist. Take the old ear piece in the drawer by the front door,” Rose nearly whispered.

The Doctor found the earpiece and hesitated. She remembered the Cybermen. There was no time for that though, she put the earpiece in and boosted it's power with her sonic as she ran back out the door.

“Torchwood, I know you’re still out there and listening. This is the Doctor. I need your help.”

 

Seven hours and twelve minutes later the Doctor was dropped off in an unmarked white van, something the size of her fist held carefully in her hands. She ran inside to find Rose asleep on the couch, weak but still alive.

“Good.” She ran upstairs to John and carefully put the blue object into one of his hands, then put her hand on it as well. She focused on her lifeforce, her very essence that allowed her to regenerate. It welled up in her body and through her hand, flowing into the wood-like object slowly with an orange glow. There was a great power inside the object that started to awaken as she fed it her energy. Then another hand gently laid upon hers and she looked up in surprise. Rose was standing next to her.

“For John.”

The Doctor knew it wouldn’t kill Rose, but instead it might just link Rose and John together forever.

"Of course." She continued focusing, letting Rose’s remaining energy join her own and flow into the item. Then they heard it. That wonderful grinding whooshing noise of hope. She loved that sound. It grew in power until it thrummed all around them, coming from the object in waves. Those waves of energy were flowing into both Rose and John, refilling what was missing. Finally it stopped and the Doctor looked at Rose. There were tears in Rose’s eyes, but this time they were tears of joy. Rose understood and the Doctor stood up.

“It’ll take a long time to regenerate into another TARDIS, but now that it’s jump started it’ll be able to provide energy for both itself and you two.”

“Where did you get it?”

“Torchwood.”

“But how?”

“Oh, that. It’s a long story but the TARDIS once blew up and blasted holes through all of time and space. I closed them, but it occurred to me that debris may have made it into this dimension. I was right. Torchwood found it and kept it safe.”

“I can’t thank you enough Doctor.”

“Rose Tyler I already owe you more than you can possibly even know. But if you stay safe and happy here with John, it would give me more joy than anything else in this world. And maybe, just maybe, with you two now connected through the TARDIS, you might just be able to have a child.”

“What? How did…”

“I saw the empty room next to this one. A nursery waiting to be if I ever saw one.”

The Doctor hadn't actually seen the empty room, but she knew the layout of the house and what she would have wanted had she been able to live with Rose like this. She watched Rose look at the piece of the TARDIS like she was afraid to let it go and the Doctor spoke softly,

“It’s okay, you don’t have to hold it. The flow of energy has already connected you two to it.” 

Rose nodded and stood up, moving to hug the Doctor so tight she thought Rose might break her ribs. It felt great.

“Thank you. Would… would you like to stay for dinner?”

The Doctor hesitated as she knew the Anti-Zone was still falling apart somewhere. Rose read her thoughts.

“Like I said, I can put you back right after you left. Promise.”

“You and I both know she can do it,” spoke John as his eyes opened.

Rose released the Doctor and rushed to hug John. After the awkwardly long hug he sat up partially with Rose’s help and looked at the Doctor.

“A woman huh? I’ll bet that’s been interesting. And I’d like to know what happened to the other me. I felt him die you know.”

The Doctor smacked herself in the forehead, immediately regretting it, “Of course! That’s why I didn’t notice it sooner. We were still connected somehow, even through the dimensions! When I... well, the... what, tenth or eleventh regeneration? Maybe it was even the twentieth! I lose track so easily. Anyways when he died that connection was severed and my lifeline to you faded! But now the new TARDIS can take over that lifeline, connecting you both to it instead of to me.”

Rose smiled, “So you’ll stay for dinner then?”

The Doctor paused and considered the question for a moment, then she remembered who she was talking to. In a way she was talking to herself and her companion, two people that knew her better than anyone else in the whole universe. She smiled.

“I’d love to Rose and John Tyler. So after I parted ways with you two…”

For once the Doctor unloaded her sorrows onto someone who actually understood them. Someone who cared enough to hear them. Sure she didn’t tell them everything, but it was nice to just let even a little of the burden go this one time.

 

The End


End file.
